[The Reaper]

While you can construct shelter of indigenous materials almost anywhere, most of the time, I would expect sufficient salvagable building materials to be available to permit building some sort of weather resistant, if not weatherproof structure. For that reason, axes, hatchets, prybars, etc. for material salvage would be invaluable.

Anyone in an area prone to wind or hurricane damage who does not have enough Visqueen or tarps available to cover the entire roof is IMHO, unprepared. A couple of staplers or a box of roofing nails and a couple of roofing hammers complete the package, and will help prevent further water damage to the structure, at least temporarily.

When traveling by vehicle, the aforementioned space blankets, shelters in a bag, tarps, ponchos, etc, are great resources for temporary shelter, or to improve on expedient or existing shelters. Remember the 550 cord, bungies and stakes to set-up the shelter, and practice it once or twice ahead of time to make sure that you have everything you need to make it work.

If you are on foot, any of the above will work, if you can handle the weight and bulk of the gear. Ideally a tent or improvised shelter and a poncho liner or sleeping bag would be available.

For warmth, consider the environment. If you are in a climate which never gets below 70 degrees, you may need nothing but a poncho liner. If it is regularly below freezing, you are going to have to have sleeping bags. If it is in between, some combo of poncho liners, improvised bags, newspapers, trash bags, sheets, extreme lightweight sleeping bags, etc. may work. Look at the homeless and how they stay warm on the streets in the winter.

Fire is a definite asset for cooking, water purification, etc., as well as heat. You can make a fire in most climates from local materials and a spark source. I would carry a small amount of tinder and a lighter of some source. Up the scale of comfort would be a camp stove, like the excellent MSR stoves, preferably a multi-fuel version that will burn unleaded and kerosene or diesel. You could also use a Coleman multi-burner stove, or a gas grill. Those who have gas kitchen stoves with a pilot light will be fine till the gas runs out. Good reason to keep the tanks topped off and possibly a spare cylinder on site. Remember that many of these devices are not intended for indoor use and are carbon monoxide generators.

For warmth, you can have an open fire, but a good radiant kerosene heater is hard to beat. The typical ones, like an excellent 10,000BTU model sold at Northern are adequate to heat a room or two and will run all night on less than a gallon of fuel. Kerosene will store safely and will keep much longer than gasoline. The downside is that the stoves are either on, of off, there is no thermostat, so you have to open windows or vent heat to the rest of the house to control the temp.

Hope this helps restart this discussion.

TR